238 HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. [1728. 



It is probable the first meeting-house in Cain was erected in 

 1727, as that meeting had selected ground for said purpose, 

 "upon the farther side of the valley upon the mountain," and had 

 secured the consent of Concord Monthly Meeting "to proceed." 



In 1728, considerable difiSculties occurred with the Indians in 

 the more remote settlements, which were attended with the most 

 serious and melancholy consequences. A small band of foreign 

 Indians called Twetchtweys appeared in the neighborhood of 

 '■'■ the Iron ivories at Mahanatawny,'' armed with guns, pistols, 

 and swords, committing depredations and alarming the inhabit- 

 ants. As the alarm spread, the danger became magnified, and 

 the stories of Indian murders gained credence. Under appre- 

 hensions of danger thus created, two brothers, John and Walter 

 Winter, shot three Indians at a place called Cassea, one man and 

 two women, and wounded two Indian girls. The news of this 

 unfortunate event coming to the ears of the Governor, he caused 

 the brothers, who were respectable farmers, to be arrested by 

 the method of Hue and Cry, together with their neighbor, 

 Morgan Herbert, as accessory to the murder. The prisoners 

 were incarcerated in the noisome dungeon of the old prison at 

 Chester, and there securely chained ; but had their trial without 

 much delay before the Justices of the Supreme Court, who then 

 held the Courts of Oyer and Terminer for the whole Province. 

 They were all convicted; but Herbert, upon the petition of the 

 people of the county, and more particularly upon that of "David 

 Lloyd, Rich'' Hill and Jer. Langhorne, the Justices of the Court," 

 was pardoned. The Justices assert in their petition, that "though 

 in strictness of Laiv, Herbert's ofience may he adjudged murder, 

 yet it appeared to them, that he was not active in perpetrating 

 thereof, but unhappily fell into y^ company of those that com- 

 mitted it." It seems strange that the law could be so strictly 

 construed as to convert a misfortune into a crime. The two 

 Winters were executed ; but the facts that have come down to us 

 would warrant the belief, that in committing the homicide they 

 acted upon the belief that the Indians were actually engaged in 

 war against the whites.^ 



1 Col. Rec. iii. 327, Ac. Penn. Arch. i. 218, Ac. For the trial, see Docket of the 

 Supreme Court, in the office of the Prothonatory, at Media, from which the following 

 record of the trial of the Winters is extracted: — 

 " Chester ss. 



At a Court of Oyer A Terminer A Gaol Delivery held at Chester for y« County 

 of Chester the lU"" day of June 1728. 



Before David Lloyd, "l 



RiCHO. Hill, S Esqrs 3d 



Jerkmiah Langhorne, J " 



Dom. Rex. ^ Who were Indicted for murdering an Indian Woman for which 

 a { they were arraigned, and pleaded not guilty, and for their tryal 



Jno. Winter A I put themselves upon God A y" country, and the Petty Jury being 

 Walter Winter ) called, and appeared, to wit, Henry Ilays, George Ashbridge, Wil- 

 liam Home, Peter Worrall, George Wood, Rich'' Jones, Abraham Lewis, Benjamin 

 Clift, John Davis, Tho. Vernon, John Tomkins A Evan Howell, [who] upon their re- 



